Shorooq Invests in AMI Labs as Yann LeCun’s AI Startup Raises $1.03 Billion to Build Next-Generation “World Model” Intelligence

Abu Dhabi, UAE — Shorooq has taken part in a $1.03 billion funding round for AMI Labs (Advanced Machine Intelligence), the newly launched artificial intelligence company founded by Turing Award winner and former Meta Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun. The round, one of the largest seed financings ever raised by an AI startup, values AMI Labs at approximately $3.5 billion pre-money and was co‑led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital and Bezos Expeditions.

"AMI Labs represents one of the most ambitious efforts to redefine the foundations of artificial intelligence. Yann LeCun’s vision for world‑model architectures could fundamentally expand what machines are capable of understanding and executing in the physical world. We are proud to support this next wave of AI innovation alongside some of the world’s leading investors."

- Dr. Bilal Baloch, Partner at Shorooq

Context and details

AMI Labs is building a new approach to AI centered on so‑called "world models" — systems designed to learn from spatial and real‑world data to enable deeper reasoning, planning and an improved understanding of cause and effect beyond current text‑ or image‑prediction models. The startup is led by CEO Alexandre LeBrun, formerly the co‑founder and CEO of healthcare AI company Nabla, while Yann LeCun serves as Executive Chair.

• Funding amount: $1.03 billion (seed round)
• Pre‑money valuation: approximately $3.5 billion
• Co‑lead investors: Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hiro Capital, HV Capital, Bezos Expeditions
• Other investors named in the round: Temasek, Nvidia, SBVA, Mark Cuban, Eric Schmidt, Xavier Niel
• Headquarters and offices: Paris (HQ), with offices in New York, Montreal and Singapore
• Initial target industries: manufacturing, aerospace, robotics and biomedical

The investor consortium combines sovereign, institutional and high‑profile strategic backers — from Temasek and Nvidia to individual technology investors such as Mark Cuban and Eric Schmidt — underscoring broad market conviction in AMI’s roadmap. AMI’s stated aim is to develop AI agents capable of reasoning and planning in physical environments, an area of particular interest for enterprise applications in sectors that require spatial and causal understanding.

Outlook

Shorooq framed its participation as part of a broader strategy to back category‑defining companies at the frontier of technological innovation and to bridge emerging AI ecosystems across the United States, Europe and the Middle East. With its Paris headquarters and international offices, AMI Labs plans to deploy its "world‑model" architecture initially into manufacturing, aerospace, robotics and biomedical use cases, positioning the company to pursue enterprise contracts where spatial reasoning and physical interaction are critical.

The sheer scale of the $1.03 billion round and the caliber of participating investors place AMI Labs among a small group of startups pursuing ambitious, foundational work in next‑generation AI. With Alexandre LeBrun at the helm and Yann LeCun guiding research strategy, the company has the leadership and capital to attempt a significant pivot in how AI systems model and interact with the physical world.